Vintage Jade Necklace

Vintage jade necklaces were brought in great quantities to America by soldiers during World War II and again doing the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. In fact it is known that certain governments complained that United States military personnel had stolen invaluable pieces from palaces and temples.

During the fifties and sixties and using many of the pieces brought by the soldiers, European and American jewelers slowly began to understand the mystery of jade carving and processing the brute stones into beautiful pieces o f jewelry. At first every piece made was a copy of an imported piece, but as they started to master the techniques and they started to apply their knowledge in metal working and other precious and semiprecious stones a new art and design emerged.

What emerged was a movement which lasted many years and is still enjoyed by women all over the world. The jade pieces were carved into beautiful flowers and leaves and combined with gold and silver. Masterpieces were made and worn by women during this time; they were expensive because jade was imported from Asia. During the sixties mines were opened in Canada and Central America and the price of a piece plummeted.  It was the art and exquisite work that saved the day.

Today you can buy very nice classic pieces online. Large jade spheres all sporting the same colors with separating carved pieces which are darker or lighter than the main pieces are sold abundantly. They are designed for women with long necks though so they will show off the piece. Today you can buy jade of many colors which is being mined in a variety of different Asian countries and in America too. Colors range from yellow all the way to blue, red green and even black jade is available.

Many jewelers like to combine different colors with different shapes of pieces to make necklaces. This is a style was used mostly on the sixties and the beginning of the seventies. Now they have gone back to the harmonious and balanced pieces. Today if you go down to flee markets all over the United States you will always find some old lady selling jade necklaces from the fifties and sixties, they are squared pieces and round pieces combined with oval pieces.

I am not trying to put down this style and the jade fashion that swept many countries during those years. There are many interesting pieces you can buy specially because of the delicacy of the piece or the color of the jade used. A gold chain necklace, from which jade tears of different sizes hang, is probably the greatest heritage of the vintage jade necklace to the present. Tears were very popular during those years and they were made into pendants and earrings and even necklaces. Vintage jade necklaces usually have more metal than jade, in those days jade was expensive and imported from Asia. Today the same vintage pieces are made but the stone is not the same quality used back them.